Ryo moved first.
He crossed the distance in an instant and drove his fist toward Jean. Jean stepped aside without urgency, letting the punch pass him cleanly.
"Wait." Zain's voice cut through. "Look around."
Ryo stopped. He looked down. He was standing inside a ritual circle carved into the ground — ancient markings running along its edge in patterns that looked older than anything he'd seen before. He stepped out of it immediately and moved to stand beside Zain.
Rika was already scanning the perimeter. "The circle," she said quietly. "Look at the paintings."
Around the ritual circle, four paintings had been etched into the stone. Each one distinct. Each one facing inward toward the center.
A woman with long blue hair and no face, her arms extended, holding a flower.
A man with pink hair, sword drawn, stance wide.
A boy mid run — no face, long green hair, green dots for eyes, a bright sun blazing behind him.
And beside him — a boy with short dark hair, red dots for eyes, arms and legs spread wide like a star. A black moon behind him.
Suka stepped forward slowly, eyes wide. "The four Originators." She looked up. "But why are they here?"
Jean glanced at the paintings. "Their existence alone doesn't summon anything. But painting them onto a ritual circle — it makes what comes next almost possible."
Cole looked at him. "Almost?"
"You still need something else." Jean's eyes moved across the group. "A specific Damik user. One that hasn't existed for fourteen hundred years." He looked at Rimazu. "Invisibility."
The group went still.
"Finally," Jean said quietly, almost to himself. "Now I can earn the praise of the Rolencian King."
Ryo looked at him.
"You're lying."
Jean turned slowly. "Excuse me?"
Team Z smiled — almost all of them at once. Something had shifted in the air and they'd all felt it.
Hannah looked at Zack. "All he said was that he was lying and they all just... believed him?"
Zain said, "His intuition has never been wrong. Believe it or not, Kaisen — it's the same as Elizabeth's."
Kaisen went quiet for a moment. "Oh really."
Jean's expression didn't change. "While you talk amongst yourselves—" he turned and walked toward the ritual circle, Rimazu still in his grip "—I'll be placing the boy in the center."
He set Rimazu down at the heart of the circle and the markings began to glow.
"Shit." Aisha took a step forward.
It was already too late.
The ground shook. The ritual circle erupted with light. And then something tore through — a burst of red Raiki so dense it darkened the sky above it — and the beast came through.
Fifty feet tall. Horns curling from its skull. Hair thick across its chest, its back, its head. Arms and legs built like ancient stone, muscular beyond proportion. It landed and the ground cracked beneath it.
Sulaiman and Scarlet looked at each other.
"We'll handle Jean," Scarlet said.
"The rest of you — the beast," Sulaiman added.
Zain turned to the Revolt. "Go to the ship. Bob won't be able to protect it alone. Get there now."
The beast opened its mouth.
The roar that came out wasn't just sound. Red Raiki scattered outward from it in every direction like a shockwave, rolling across Eve's Gates and hitting every member of the Revolt simultaneously. One by one they staggered — dropping to their knees, fighting to stay conscious, the pressure of it unlike anything they'd encountered.
Kaisen planted his feet and gritted his teeth. This thing's Raiki is on another level entirely.
Zain absorbed it. Steady. Unmoved. Nothing I haven't felt before.
Benjamin was on one knee, shaking, his green Raiki flickering as he fought to hold himself upright. His jaw tightened. How am I supposed to get stronger if I keep ending up on the ground? He looked at his own hands. Not this time. I will stand.
He pushed. Slowly, painfully, he rose.
Ryo looked at him and smiled. "Yeah." He stepped beside him. "And I'll be right here with you. Because you're my friend."
Benjamin didn't say anything. But he stayed standing.
Kaisen gathered the unconscious members of the Revolt and looked at Zain. One nod. Then he was gone — heading for the ship.
The beast looked down at the ones still standing. Its eyes moved slowly across them — unhurried, assessing. Then something close to amusement crossed its face.
"There are still some standing." Its voice was deep and ancient, each word landing like stone. "Interesting." It looked up at the sky briefly. "So I've been summoned. How long has it been?"
Jean looked up at it. "Fourteen hundred years."
The beast — Riak — was quiet for a moment. Then it ran its tongue across its teeth slowly. "Fourteen hundred years." It looked back down at Jean. "And after all that time — this is still the goal? Conquest?"
Jean said nothing.
Riak's eyes drifted across the remaining fighters and settled on Ryo. It studied him for a long moment. That kid. His Damik is Nurami. Something stirred in its expression. I wonder if he even knows what that means.
Ryo looked at it and exhaled slowly.
"Descending presence."
Red Raiki rolled outward from him in a wave — quiet, dense, spreading across the ground like a tide. It hit Riak across the chest.
Riak's eyes widened.
It hadn't expected that. Not from someone this young. But more than the technique — more than the Raiki itself — there was something in it. Something familiar. A face surfaced in the back of Riak's memory, old and half forgotten, and it smiled.
"Well then." Its eyes moved between Ryo and Zain. "Kid. And blue eyed boy — the one with two blades." It straightened to its full height. "I hope you both understand — I won't be holding back."
Ryo looked up at it. "I don't intend for you to."
Zain stepped forward, both blades drawn, his red Raiki spreading quietly around him.
"And I'm not a boy."